Page 23 of Wed to the Devil

“What are you doing here?” he asks.

His voice is low and threatening, almost certainly about to tell me that I shouldn’t be here.

I spin around and shut the door with my back to it, my eyes going wide. Dare looks at me, his expression haughty and imperious. For a moment, I am confused. Is he just angry that I went snooping where I shouldn’t have been?

“Well? What do you have to say for yourself?”

I gulp and look down at his outfit. Then I squint. I don’t remember exactly what he was wearing when we left the boat, but either he has changed into a three-piece suit or…

Or he isn’t Dare at all. Sucking in a breath, I put my trembling hands behind my back and straighten my posture. My head goes up, my shoulders go back, my chest sticks out. Just like Dare told me to stand whenever I was around someone that I wanted to impress or intimidate.

“Burn,” I greet him carefully. “I suppose I should ask you the same thing. Why are you creeping around the secret passageways in your grandfather’s house and trying to scare people to death?”

He looks nonplussed at the fact that I figured out his little deception so quickly. He stalks toward me, making his size evident when he looms over me. I draw a shaky breath and look up at him, determined not to look like I actually feel. That is, that I’m about to pee my pants.

Burn raises his hand to me, his fingers getting much too close to my throat for my liking. Then he diverts his hand at the last moment, catching a little of my coppery hair between his fingers and tugging it gently.

“I see that my brother brought you back unscathed from wherever you scampered off to. I was just telling Daisy that I didn’t know if Dare would kill you or not.”

My blood goes cold. Suddenly, I can only hear the sound of my heart beating in my ears.

Did I hear Burn right? Did he say that Dare would kill me?

I have to say something. I lick my lips and say, “I’m fine, as you can see. Thank you for your concern.”

Burn smirks and moves closer to me, his body nearly touching mine. I move back but I hit the wall and Burn chuckles. “Talia, Talia, Talia. What are we going to do with you?”

He traces a line from my collarbone down to my breasts, looking me dead in the eye as he does it. I move to smack his hand away but he grabs my hand and pins me against the wall, resuming his slow unbuttoning of my coat.

The look in his eyes is fiery, with an edge of threat.

“Stop, Burn. I don’t want you to touch me.”

He smirks and stops, then he spews his hand into my hair and pulls my head back. “Why are you with my brother? Is he paying you? Or did he just promise you a cut of the proceeds when he manages to steal the inheritance from me?”

I lick my lips, struggling against his tight hold.

“Let go of me, Burn. You’re hurting me.”

He laughs. “You don’t know the first thing about what it is to be hurt, little girl. But maybe you don’t have to. What’s he paying you? Whatever it is, I’ll double it. Or if you wait until I win the inheritance race, I will triple your money. All I need from you is a promise that you will start birth control right away. The patch, the pill, the shot, whatever.”

I look up at him, my brow furrowing. “What? No. Get off me. You are sick.”

He grits his teeth, leaning close enough to my face that I can feel his breath against my cheek. “Either you let me pay you. Or I fucking kill you. I don’t particularly care which one.”

Something in me snaps. I rear back and bash my forehead into his mouth, screaming. “Get off me! Help! Get off me!”

Burn stumbles back, holding his hand over his mouth, his eyes going wide. A door opens at the end of our hallway and Clive steps through, looking perplexed. His gaze scans the small hallway and he sees Burn on the ground and me screaming bloody murder.

“Help! Clive, help! Burn is trying to kill me!”

Burn looks bewildered and absolutely scandalized by the idea that I would just immediately rat him out. Clive storms down the hallway, casting Burn a vicious glare. The butler grabs me, pulling me from where I am standing and practically carrying me back toward the open hallway.

I catch a last glance of Burn getting to his feet, his hands still over his mouth. And then Clive shoves me out the door, following me and slamming the door shut behind him.

Dare comes running around the corner, ready to do battle, his fists balled up. Clive grabs me by the shoulders and pushes me toward Dare, looking ashamed though he didn’t do anything wrong.

“Sir, I’m very sorry. If I’d known that you were here, I would have known to keep Miss Chance’s location in my head. You see, I knew that Burn was here–”